Washing device



I 1 3,103,22 WASHING DEVICE Benjamin F. Greiman, Rte. 4, Garner, Iowa Filed Mar. 1, 1961', Ser. No. 92,501 1 Claim. (Cl; 134'-94) of tumbling the container with the waiter and items to be.

washed, have been employed by the clothes washing industry. Many items requiring washing (and egg washing is an example), are so delicate and fragile that neither plunger type machines nor material tumbling machines can cope with the problem. Even the reciprocating type machines have a tendency to damage the goods. Also, the reciprocating type machines are complicated and costly.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of my invention is to provide a simple washing machine that is gentle to and will not damage the items or material being cleaned.

More specifically, the object of this invention is to provide a washing machine using compressed air to agitate the cleaning fluid in the washing machine housing.

A further object of this invention is to provide a water agitating means that may be applied to any suitable container.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a compressed air means for agitating the cleaning fluid and eggs, that permits the manual control and direction of the air exiting into the cleaning fluid.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a compressed air washing means that may be used in conjunction with an ordinary pail and basket.

Still further objects of my invention are to provide a washing machine that is economical in manufacture and durable in use.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art;

My invention consists in the construction, arrangements, and combination, of the various pants of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed out in my claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of my manually actuated means for ejecting a stream of air in the lower portion of a container having a liquid Washing solution;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of an ordinary pail and basket withmy compressed air distributing means in-' stalled therein;

FIG. 3 is a topplan view of the item washer showing how the air exiting head may be manually shifted to various positions in the container and is taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the air ejecting means taken on line 44 of FIG. 1 and more fully illustrates its United States Patent 3 l Patented Sept. 10, l 963 "ice Obviously, for such usage at least the liquid container and egg holding means must be light of weight and portable.

1 use an ordinary bucket or pail 10, having the usual bail handle 11. This pail is my basic container for holding theliquid washing solution 12. I also use an ordinary mesh, pail basket 13- having the usual bail handle 15. This basket 13' has an outside diameter substantially less than that of the inside diameter of the bucket 10 to provide an area space 1'6 between its outer side and the inside of the bucket, when it is in the bucket as shown in FIG. 1. The basket 13 is for holding eggs 17 or like. Such baskets have spaced apart downwardly extending legs 19 at their bottom peripheries and therefore the bottom 21 of the basket is elevated to provide a space area 22 between the bottom of the basket and the bottom of the bucket. It is with such containers that -I install the compressed air discharge unit and which I will now describe in detail.

' The numeral 25 designates in general a rigid pipe conduit. The upper end portion 26 of this conduit extends substantially horizontally forward and has a hand grip portion 27. From this portion 27 the conduit is bent to extend downwardly and slightly forwardly into a shaft portion 29. From the portion 29 the conduit is bent to extend horizontally forwardly to provide a horizontal extension 30. The numeral 31 designates a perforated head on and communicating with the inside of the horizontal portion 38. This head is in the form of a horizontal continuous hollow ring having a hollow perforated cross tube 32 as shown in FIG. 1. When in use the upper end portion 2-6 of the conduit is adapted to be in communication with a source of air under pressure (not shown).

To use my device the pipe conduit 25 is placed in the bucket with its perforated head adjacent the inside center bottom of the bucket. Next the basket of eggs or like is placed into the bucket. If the water or like has not previously been placed in the bucket, it is now necessary to add such a liquid cleaning solution.

By this arrangement of parts, the shaft portion 29 will reside in the space area 16, the head 31 will reside below the bottom of the basket in the area space 22, and the handle grip portion 27 will be above and at one side of the bucket. With air under pressure passing through the pipe conduit 25 and exiting from the perforated head 31, bubbles of air will pass upwardly through the water or like in the open meshed basket thereby rotating the eggs and successfully Washing and cleaning them as shown in FIG. 2. These air bubbles will not only move the eggs within the liquid, but the liquid will be agitated by the air bubbles. By grapsin g the grip handle the operator can move the air ejection head to different positions under the basket as shown by broken lines in FIG. 3. Thus the operator can at will change the position of the ejecting air and-[thereby change the pattern of movement of the eggs as well as changing the water or like turbulence. This manual adjustment and changing of the physical movement of the liquid and eggs makes for a most complete washing and cleaning of the eggs.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of my washing device without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

An egg washing apparatus comprising in combination:

a container having a circular wall and a substantially flat bottom for holding a quantity of cleaning fluid;

a mesh pail having a circular wall and a bottom insertable into said container with said mesh wall spaced inwardly from said circular wall, and with said mesh,

bottom spaced above said container bottom; and

lower end portion between said mesh bottom and said container bottom.

a conduit capable of transmitting air therethrough having a straight shaft portion insertable between said mesh Wall and said container wall, having further a 5 References Cited in the fileof this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS lower end portion of less vertical dimension than the g fi space between said bottoms curved angularly from eman 2,408,306 Plournoy Sept. 24, 1946 said shaft portion and insertable between said rnesh 2,655,455 Steele Oct. 13, 1953 bottom and said container bottom, and sard condult S 2,725,062 Vale Nov. 29, 1953 having further an upper end portion adapted to be 10 m fluidly connected to a source of air under pressure, FOREIGN PAlENTS said conduit being movable so as to oscillate said 98 Great Britain of 1906 

